MBA networking guidance helps student break out of her shell

MBA networking guidance helps student break out of her shell

For many prospective MBA students, the networking opportunities available within Canada’s graduate business progams are as valuable — or even more valuable — as the MBA designation and the knowledge with which it’s associated. Yet for some students, the process of building a professional network can seem an ominous and intimidating process that pushes them beyond their comfort zone. Heather Gawel was one of them. An engineering graduate who spent time in the auto sector before transitioning to engineering biomaterials in the U.S. — where she began learning program management, finance and recruiting while on the job — Ms. Gawel eventually made the choice to puruse an MBA program at the Laurier School of Business & Economics. Now a process improvement analyst at Medtronic Canada, Ms. Gawel recently spoke with Rebecca Walberg about the role networking played in allowing her to make the leap from her tight-knit engineering community to Canada’s biomedical industry. Following is an edited transcript of their conversation.

Q What was it like moving from the engineering side of business to the management side? Was there a big cultural adjustment?A It was a big-time adjustment. I moved from a technical job to a much more people-skills centred role, and the expectations, as well as the skills needed, were very different. When I approached people in sales or product management, I found they could be wary of people with engineering backgrounds, because [engineers] don’t always have the people skills required for success in management functions. The finance piece, and exposure to financials and accounting, were also factors in my decision to do an MBA, but the management and people skills were what I most wanted to learn, and why I focused on strategy.

Q How has networking been part of your career and education?A I was not at all comfortable with networking before the MBA program. It seemed like something I had never learned about in my previous degrees. While I was working in the U.S., I was also studying for my PhD part time. The biomedical device industry is a close-knit community, and then there was my time in academia, where everyone is connected to everyone else working in the field, but it’s a small field — and that’s the level of networking that I knew.

So then when I was going through the MBA program, and even when I was finishing the degree, I had no idea what avenue I even wanted to pursue. I had all these diverse skills but no idea of how that translated into a position. You don’t know these things until you talk to people who’ve done it, who’ve come from similar backgrounds or who have the sorts of jobs you’re interested in, or both. And the networking piece of the puzzle is learning how to get that information, how to develop that informal contact with people through networking.

Q How did the MBA program help you with this — both inside and outside the classroom?A One of the most important things I learned at the career centre at Laurier is the concept of informational interviewing, where you call people up and ask them about their industry. I had a lot of questions about how this would work, or whether it would work at all. One, how do you even get their contact information? Two, what would you ask them, given that you’re basically making a cold call? And three, wouldn’t they just think you’re a near-stranger calling them up and asking for a job?

I participated in an exercise at the career centre where I made a list of people I could call based on their databases, and my contacts. My classmates also gave me connections, and I think classmates as a source of information are underutilized, by the way. There were students with really complex backgrounds in my classes, who had worked at lots of organizations, and I got a lot of contacts and information from them.

Q What was the next step once you’d identified possible connections and gotten their contact information? How did you tackle the challenge of what to ask?A I had 54 entries in my spreadsheet after working with the career centre, and it just exploded from there. I would ask people for some time and to share their observations about their company or industry: who’s hiring, who’s consolidating, what’s a good potential employer and also what’s not, which companies are looking for people with backgrounds in project management and supply chain — and people would talk to me for half an hour, an hour, on the phone or in coffee shops or for lunch, and they’d answer those very questions. And then they would usually suggest someone else I should talk to, and provide phone numbers and introductions.

Q Did you get more comfortable with this process as you worked on your approach to building a network?A The first couple of calls were difficult. But after the first few successes, I realized that you’re just asking people for their experiences. People love talking about their career paths, and are interested in mentoring and developing other people. Especially if you have the right attitude, you’re not asking a contact to give you a job, you’re asking about a skill set and their career and their company, and for their thoughts on whether you’re a good match — but it can lead to a job.

Q How did the business school factor into this process?A In a lot of my classes, experts from industry came in to give presentations about their field and their company, and many of them were directly applicable to my job search. More directly, we discussed what questions to ask to get information from different kinds of contacts, how to research someone a bit before meeting to give you a sense of what questions to ask. Laurier also provided alumni contacts to help with specific issues. When I was thinking of working in pharmaceuticals, I had a lot of questions about the industry in Canada, since I’d only worked with biomedical device companies in the U.S. They set me up with someone very senior at Pfizer in Montreal, who spent an hour talking to me on the phone. During a job interview I had later, I was asked if it was a problem that my experience in the field was American, and I knew how to answer that because of that earlier conversation.

Q Is there a connection between these career and business skills you learned and your career path today?A Absolutely there is. When I was doing my job search I talked to a manager at Medtronic for maybe 45 minutes about the company and the culture and environment, and the work they were doing. I had a lot of friends who worked here already, and talking to her really reinforced that I wanted to work there. She said, “I can tell you’re enthusiastic, and want to be a part of this organization, so let me know if I can help you do that.” After she gave me that opening I mentioned that I’d applied. I later heard that she’d recommended my application and resumé, and even though I came to the hiring process at the end, I ultimately got the job.